Asia is a key market for global sports: Raine Group’s Joseph Ravitch

Geographically, though, where do you see the most growth for sports like F1 and the women? Because no doubt unlocking the US market was a big thing and a game-changer for F1. But we're also starting to see F1 perhaps coming back slowly but surely into other markets. Before COVID, there was talk about a Vietnam Grand Prix, for instance. And I believe Thailand also wants to get its own Grand Prix as well. Do you think that the that that growth is starting to shift more towards Asia in terms of opportunities when it comes to sports valuations and also that of live events? >> Again, there there is no question that Asia I I've long said, and I lived in Hong Kong for 5 years back in the '90s, there's no question that the 21st century is the Asian century in my view still. I think one of the great challenges is sort of the black swan event in terms of US-China relations, but I think that gets smoothed over over the course of due time. Um the fact is if you are a global sport, you have to be in Asia. That's where the fan base by and large is. And it I think it's less about F1. F1 is fundamentally limited to the number of races it can stage. So it's going to stick to key markets. It's got to have races in Europe and North America, South America, and Asia. I don't think you're going to see 10 more F1 Grand Prixs here in Asia. You could see secondary circuits, if you will, junior leagues being created around motor racing that produce more drivers, local drivers are going to help drive fan attention and and success of the sport. But I think in general, you know, I go back to examples. I sold When I sold Chelsea Football or Man United, you know, they they within their own country, they had a few million fans. Globally, Chelsea has 350 million fans. There are more fans in Southeast Asia Chelsea fans in Southeast Asia than there are in the UK. There are more Chelsea fans in Japan than there are in the UK. Same with Man United times 10. They We calculated about a billion two global supporters for Man United, most of whom are in the Asian markets. So Western sport or global sport will continue to try and monetize Asia in a way they haven't in the past. And I think you're seeing very sophisticated attempts by some leagues like F1 and NBA and others to succeed here. Eventually sports like MLB will catch up. North Asia basket baseball's an indigenous sport. They'll figure that out over time. You'll continue to see plus I think you'll see opportunities for niche sports. I just came from Japan very exciting week. Volleyball is taking off really in Japan. Baseball basketball is beginning to take off in a very serious way and obviously there there's a global attraction to football as a sport and I mean soccer. >> Is cricket an opportunity? >> So I will tell you I'm very proud of the fact that I helped create the IPL. And it's pretty amazing cuz I can tell you the story when we sold the original franchises and we just sold the Rajasthan Royals one of the original teams for close to two billion dollars which is kind of shocking to me. I I worked to help create the Colombian Premier League with the West Indies Cricket Board. Just last year we created the hundreds in the UK and now we're restructuring the Big Bash and we'll be selling the clubs there. Cricket is increasingly becoming global like every sport. Again they need to figure out how to penetrate the US. They need to learn how to penetrate some of these other markets but effectively the commercialization of the sport into places where people can root for for clubs and cheer for their favorite players beyond simply national nation versus nation test matches. You know it obviously it was the it was the T20 model that made cricket work commercially and turn it away from a three-day test match. But I think cricket will continue to grow as well. It's part of a whole wave of what I'll call secondary sports that it will have we've seen grow quite substantially and continue to have presence. Mixed martial arts the creation of TKO which is W the combination of WWE and UFC. UFC was always very big in Asia. These are effectively global sports. You know I think you'll see a lot around motor racing whether MotoGP I think is more likely to come to Asia. If I if I'm my friend Derek Chang at Formula 1 I would try and do major MotoGP races in places like Vietnam and in Thailand and some of these other markets and if you will diversify the the motorsports business away from classic F1 destinations like Singapore. >> Right. Growing the sport though in Asia, you might argue that you need to have some form of engagement on participation in the sport to make sure people are immersed in it and feel like they're part of the experience. Again, um are there what vehicles are there to look at if you're an investor, if you want to if you want to go into the immersion or the participation of that of that sport or inculcating that into Asian societies and are there and are there opportunities there to invest in those particular vehicles? >> I I think there's investment that will come from the leagues and from the sports organizations themselves. But again, when you fundamentally talk about global sport, you're talking about easily accessible things to do. So, what does it take for about to play basketball? A hoop and a ball. Soccer is just a ball, right? Football. Um you know, motor racing is something on wheels. Everybody has something on wheels. Fighting is fighting. It's you know, one can argue one of the oldest sports on earth. You know, these are the sports that are indigenous in many ways to many different countries from the Middle East to South America and obviously in Asia. I think obviously what we want is people to become associated with sports brands and become passionate about them because once people become fans of sports, they become very multi-generational. But I can give you time after time having worked with the NBA for a long time in China and helping them create NBA China back about 20 years ago, well before that starting in the '90s, David Stern, the then commissioner, started doing a lot of grassroots work to make basketball popular in China, which is kind of shocking because it's very, you know, China is not a place you think of as basketball. It's now one of the top sports.